Cultural identity, mobility and decentralization

Regionalism and efforts to reinforce regional cultural identities are on the rise in Europe. Examples can be found in Spain, Belgium, Italy, Great Britain, and other countries. Regional governments may invest in cultural identity due to beneficial effects on social capital. However, this comes at the cost of cultural adaption costs for non-natives. We propose a simple model of regional culture investments in a federation to investigate such a tradeoff. The model shows that uncoordinated cultural policies generally lead to oversupply of regional culture, and that richer regions face higher incentives to invest in regional culture. We conclude that only mild assumptions are necessary to make a strong case for regional cultural integration. Journal of Comparative Economics 43 (2) (2015) 323-333. Institute for Employment Research, Research Data Center, Regensburger Str. 104,90478 Nuremberg, Germany; University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Findelgasse 7/9,90402 Nuremberg, Germany. (C) 2014 Association for Comparative Economic Studies Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.